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Seeing her own reflection "was so tra Seeing her own reflection "was so traumatizing" for Stark, a transgender woman who hadn't yet undergone the surgical treatments she knew she needed. Some days, she couldn't leave the house.

She tried taking her own life. An Army veteran living with disability, she could not get this surgical care from her usual provider, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which does not pay for or perform gender transition-related surgeries. Stark calls Wisconsin home but mostly lives out of a suitcase, maintaining a busy schedule as an escort, adult film performer, photographer and phone sex operator.

But now, her career is coming to an abrupt end after a bill passed by Congress in March. I just call it the end of my career, essentially," she said. The bill, called the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act , prompted the online bulletin board Craigslist to shut down its personal ads two days after its passage. The bill was directed against sex trafficking, not the volitional career in sex work to which Stark credits her own survival.

Craigslist is an online classifieds site, divided by city or geographic area, through which users advertise a range of goods, services, jobs and housing. Now awaiting the president's signature, the bill paves the way for sex trafficking survivors to hold websites accountable for "knowingly" facilitating their abuse. The legislation chips away at part of a act that gave a broad layer of immunity to online companies, such as Facebook or Twitter, from being held liable for what their users post.

Though the bill aims to crack down on sex trafficking and protect survivors, critics say it threatens the lives and livelihoods of sex workers who choose to work in the profession by encouraging websites like Craigslist to censor their content -- pushing some sex workers back out to the street and removing their tools for finding and screening clients.

Some sex workers are already losing their housing as a direct result of forums like Craigslist personals going dark, according to Christa B. Daring, board president of the Sex Workers Outreach Project. Many pay rent week-to-week and struggle to feed themselves and their children, they said. Craigslist was the first site Stark used to transition away from the street, where she relied on her military training to make "snap judgments" to stay out of harm's way, dodge potentially dangerous clients and avoid getting arrested -- again.

Even with the advantage of her military training, however, "most often, physical appearance and demeanor really don't tell you a whole lot," she said. Many sex workers run background checks on clients, communicate through online forums and check "bad date lists," which sex workers create to warn others about hostile clients.

Stark also has a mandatory hour waiting period before she agrees to meet clients, giving her time to check for criminal records and other warning signs. She learned ways to stay safe and grow her business from other sex workers online, some of whom keep blogs. We can mentor each other. We can support each other. We can screen our clients," said Akynos. Bolstering these concerns about sex worker safety is a recent research paper -- still under peer review -- that suggests Craigslist's "erotic" services section may be linked to a drop in the female homicide rate.

I don't think Waco had one. But Craigslist didn't launch this section in every city at the same time. Cunningham's team found that cities where Craigslist launched the section for erotic services reduced their female homicide rate by up to However, it is not possible to say what portion of those homicide victims were sex workers, Cunningham said, nor is it possible to prove that Craigslist was directly responsible for the dip.

This reduction wasn't seen for other types of homicides Cunningham analyzed. The research gives quantitative insight into what is likely to happen in the wake of the new bill, he said. Some of them go back to working for a pimp. Some of them, maybe they advertise on the dark web.

Limited information exists on the number of sex workers in the United States, including illegal acts of prostitution. Many definitions of sex work include a broader variety of services beyond prostitution, such as "erotic performances. Akynos expects that black sex workers will be some of the hardest hit by the anti-trafficking legislation. She recently founded a group called the Black Sex Worker Collective to "help facilitate sex workers who may be looking to exit the business, as well as support those that are in the business.

We're already criminalized in so many more ways than white people are, period," said Akynos, who specified that she was not talking about sex work alone. Some said Reddit misunderstood what the pages were for, and there were no actual transactions taking place in the forums. Others complained about communities that remain open, such as ones dedicated to supporting Mr.

Trump, which they described as far more cancerous than gun, drug or sex forums. Some online users suggested moving away from forums and toward person-to-person communications through smartphone apps. Others predicted a website based outside the U. One workaround was already developing on Craigslist , where people were using the Missed Connections section to troll for partners.

Parents reported finding their runaway or missing children being sold for sex through the website, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said 74 percent of the reports of child sex trafficking it received from the public involved Backpage ads.

The Senate investigation found Backpage was not only aware of the activity, but also actively tried to shield it by suggesting alterations to ads. Instead of taking down questionable ads, the website suggested terms that avoided certain trigger words.

Rob Portman, Ohio Republican — which ended up being combined and passed by overwhelming margins. The House vote was , and the Senate vote was The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the bill censored the internet by scaring companies into overzealous reactions.

.
More storms possible with continued heat. Matt's 5 PM Thursday Weather. The following year, under similar pressure, the company removed its "adult services" sectionreplacing it with the word "censored. What is on and off the ballot? Ohio couple accused of holding up truck stop. Some sex workers are already losing their housing as a direct result of forums like Craigslist personals going dark, according to Christa B. The American Civil Liberties Union is considering a challenge to the bill once it gets signed into law but has no definite plans to do so, said Ian Thompson, a legislative representative for the organization.

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Missing Child Alert canceled in Alabama. We can mentor each. She learned ways to stay safe and grow her business from other sex workers online, some of whom keep blogs. Parents reported finding their runaway or missing children being sold for sex through the website, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said 74 percent of the reports of child sex trafficking it received from the public involved Backpage ads. In a statement reported by CNN, the California Democrat said that after President Donald Trump took aim at her Monday on Twitter, "even more individuals are leaving threatening messages and sending hostile mail to my craigs list casual encounter asian hookups.